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MONTREAL—Michel Therrien was looking at about 72 hours to figure out who will be the starting goalie who is not Carey Price.

That’s the length of time covered by most commercially available “survival kits” — 72 hours — for staying-alive essentials in the event of a calamity, say an earthquake or a hurricane or Godzilla attacking the Bell Centre.

That was no Godzilla. That was Chris Kreider.

On the morning after, and the morning after that, and the morning after that — the Eastern Conference final doesn’t resume until Thursday evening — Therrien is still left with the dilemma he faced at 10 a.m. Monday: Peter Budaj or Dustin Tokarski? Dustin Tokarski or Peter Budaj?

Not a question that was even posed to the Canadiens coach during a conference call with reporters Tuesday because not a chance he would answer it, even if his mind is already settled on the matter.

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Funnily enough, it was his opposite number, Rangers bench boss Alain Vigneault, who toyed mischievously with the riddle at his own media cluster yesterday. Vigneault claims to have picked correctly for Game 2 — New York had a sense it would be the rookie, Tokarski — and now he professes to have an sixth sense for Game 3 in Manhattan, an absolute must-win for the Habs if they entertain any hope of stretching out the Blueshirts beyond four-and-swept.

Inklings, A.V.?

“I do. But I’m not willing to share it with you.”

Never used to be sassy like that, until he got to Gotham.

Therrien, perhaps even more than a few days ago, now has a Hobson’s Choice, Sophie’s Choice, Maxwell House Choice, Solomon’s Choice: how to split Montreal’s goaltending baby. Having already shown he thinks Budaj is too much a loser (10 goals on 39 shots in three career playoff games for Montreal), Therrien would be foolish to likewise shred young Tokarski’s confidence by eschewing the scrub now — with the possibility dangling that the Canadiens would have to go back to Mr. T-wee for Game 4.

And, as Therrien was the first to acknowledge the other night, Montreal didn’t lose 3-1 because Tokarski was lacking. They lost because Henrik Lundqvist was brilliant. (Which, while immensely appreciated by Vigneault, he vows will not require duplication in Game 3: “We can’t rely on our goaltending the way we did (Monday) night and we’re not going to next game.”)

Therein is the true crux of Therrien’s dilemma, the horns upon which he is straddling (OUCH!)

His squad left it all out there in the opening frame of Game 2; as forceful, fireballing and locked-in as they’ve been at any point in the post-season and still they trailed 2-1 after 20, a harbinger of the final outcome maybe foretold in very first minute when Rene Bourque had three jams at the puck in the crease but couldn’t stuff it past Lundqvist.

So Therrien yanks the conversation in the direction he wants it to go, reminding how well Montreal had bounced back from the disaster of an opening 7-2 loss, and that momentum is a quicksilver thing, can turn in an instant, and that they were missing on Monday by inches and the Rangers were desperately blocking shots. Put another way, Montreal was also failing to capitalize on rebound opportunities and their allegedly superior speed had been neutralized — sagged out — by the second period.

It is rather like whistling past the graveyard of their looming playoff demise, though, even as Therrien tries to shift-change Montreal’s suddenly steep challenges into some kind of onward-ho charge into the heart of Manhattan.

“We surprised a lot of people through the course of the season. When we started the season, there a lot of people not even putting us in the playoffs, or if they wanted to be polite they’d give us the eighth spot.

“We caused a surprise to make the playoffs. We caused a surprise against the Tampa Bay Lightning to win in four. And we caused a bigger surprise to beat the Boston Bruins.

“Now again there are not many people that believe in us. But that’s a group with a lot of character. This is a group that believes in themselves. And we’re going to focus on one game and try to create a surprise for Thursday night again.”

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